Eric Edelstein

Do you know that OHIO and Doubt are 2 of the latest buzzwords in the US?

Since I heard them mentioned for the first time at a talk two weeks ago, they have changed the word i’ve been working!

The speaker mentioned that although the 2 concepts are SIMPLE, seminars are being held dealing with just these 2 concepts as they are so powerful.

OHIO is an acronym - ONLY HANDLE IT ONCE

Doubt - the reason why you can’t handle it immediately

Basically, sort things out immediately, and you’ll live a more organised, less stressed life.

So what exactly are these concepts? Well, action happens when people do things, either you doing something, or waiting on someone else to do something. OHIO means if someone asks you for something or some information GET BACK TO THEM IMMEDIATELY WITH THE ANSWER. Doubt means you can’t get back to them with the answer, as you don’t have enough INFORMATION, so get the information - either reply to their request ASKING MORE QUESTIONS or forward the email or call whoever needs to be called to get the information.

And there you have it - you don’t have hundreds of flagged to-do items…OHIO and doubt are SIMPLE concepts, but they are POWERFUL if used correctly!

After hearing about these concepts, I mentioned them to a few people - and the reaction wasn’t the one I was expecting. They weren’t as excited as I was about OHIO and doubt.

But I decided that I liked them and decided to try apply them.

So I went through my flagged items, and realised because I had so many flags, I seldom got back to the flags. So I went through all the flagged items, and replied to everything that needed answers, and gave the answers where I could. Some of the items required reading long documents - if they could be read in a few minutes, and replied to, I read them on the spot, if they were too long, I saved them to a folder, where I could read them later on (but within 48 hours).

And then I got creative. I realised that I could create a To-Do list in my calender or another program, but most to-do’s require email being sent. So I created a DRAFT EMAIL and set up 2 sections in it…

1. Everything I needed to do - read documents, go places, do things for others that required a little more time and couldn’t be done immediately

2. What I was waiting on others for - usually getting back to me with information or answers

During the day if I remember I update the list - but more importantly, at least once a day, I scan through the list, and see who still needs to send me info, and then I forward them the previous mail I sent them - and that item stays on the list till resolved.

Information is now flying, I don’t have hundreds of items I’ve flagged and not coming back to, and tons of small issues which were on the to-do list have been resolved and marked off both the lists AND my brain list (which is a highly draining list when you know you have a large number of small items to sort out)

OHIO & doubt have changed the way I work!

Are you managing to keep on top of everything? How do you do it? If you use OHIO and doubt, let me know how it works for you.

Remember, ANSWER everything IMMEDIATELY - either with the answer (OHIO) or with more questions so you can resolve the issue (DOUBT)